Multicolor Handwoven Wool Barak Village Kilim

Barak is the name of a Turkmen community and of the plain it settled, south of Gaziantep in southeastern Türkiye. This kilim carries that name: handwoven in wool on cotton warps, multicolored, and small — 78 × 98 cm (2'7" × 3'3"), nearer a wall piece or a chest cover than anything you would put underfoot. The small format forces the drawing to compress, and the interest lies in watching a weaver solve it.

01A line from the archive

Motifs that would run in long registers on a full-length kilim are stacked instead, three or four deep, with the border squeezed to a single narrow line so it does not eat the field. The colors are put down at full strength: red, dark blue, a green, and a cream that does the work of a highlight. Wool weft over a cotton warp, woven flat, with the pattern made entirely by the weft passing over and under. A piece this small on a floor will move every time somebody walks past it, and no underlay really fixes that — it is simply not enough rug to stay put.

On a wall, over the back of a chair or across the lid of a chest it does exactly what it should. Professional cleaning; it is small enough that this costs little. Handwoven in wool on cotton warps, in the Barak district near Gaziantep. Flat-woven, with the pattern formed by weft alone. Red, dark blue and green at full strength, with cream as highlight. Motifs stacked rather than run out in registers, because of the small format. 78 × 98 cm (2'7" × 3'3"). Too small to stay put on a floor; better on a wall or a chest. Professional cleaning. One piece. Small kilims were what a household made with the yarn left over, which is why they are so often the boldest things in a collection.